Good Friday morning. President Bush steps into the Roosevelt Room at 9:01 a.m. and announces a $17.4 billion bailout for GM and Chrysler, with the loans conditioned on the automakers showing a plan for “viability” by March 31. A senior administration official told reporters during a telephone background briefing just before the president spoke that the firms need to show they can be “profitable soon.” Ford got new financing before credit froze, and has said it does not need immediate government assistance to stay alive.

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The president: “If we were to allow the free market to take its course now, it would almost certainly lead to disorderly bankruptcy and liquidation for the automakers. … [T]here's too great a risk that bankruptcy now would lead to a disorderly liquidation of American auto companies. My economic advisors believe that such a collapse would deal an unacceptably painful blow to hardworking Americans far beyond the auto industry. It would worsen a weak job market and exacerbate the financial crisis. It could send our suffering economy into a deeper and longer recession. And it would leave the next President to confront the demise of a major American industry in his first days of office."

Politico’s David Rogers: “The structure largely follows the pattern of legislation that failed in Congress last week in the Senate because of Republican opposition.”

Politico’s Martin Kady II: “Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) is the first — but certainly won't be the last — Republican to rip President Bush for bailing out the auto industry. Republicans who blocked the auto legislation in Congress are sure to be upset with their president, yet the Bush moves this morning to help Detroit will give the GOP a strong opportunity to make a clear break with an unpopular president.”

MINNESOTA UPSET? Politico’s Josh Kraushaar: “Coleman leads Franken by just 2 votes: The prospects of Franken, who has trailed in every count since Election Night, are looking up.” For the first time, plugged-in Dems are privately predicting victory.

CHANGED HISTORY — “'Deep Throat' Mark Felt Dies at 95,” by Patricia Sullivan: “W. Mark Felt Sr., the associate director of the FBI during the Watergate scandal who, better known as ‘Deep Throat,’ became the most famous anonymous source in American history, died yesterday. He was 95. Felt died at 12:45 p.m. at his home in Santa Rosa, Calif. … He secretly guided Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward as he and his colleague Carl Bernstein pursued the story of the 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee's headquarters at the Watergate office buildings and later revelations of the Nixon administration's campaign of spying and sabotage against its perceived political enemies. …

“Felt, a master of bureaucratic infighting and misdirection, seized upon a Post story that had not used him as a source. In a bold stroke, he denounced it in an internal memo and ordered an investigation into the leak. ‘Expedite,’ he commanded. The next day, in a notation on another memo that passed over his desk, he pointed to a prosecutor as the source of the leak. ‘I was impressed. My guy knew his stuff,’ Woodward wrote in ‘Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat’ (2006). ‘The memo was an effective cover for him, the very best counterintelligence tradecraft. Not only had he initiated the leak inquiry, but Felt appeared to have discovered the leaker.’”

DRIVING THE DAY — Obama presser at 2:15 p.m. Eastern — AP’s Philip Elliott: “President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet is nearly complete as he prepares to leave Saturday on a holiday vacation in his native Hawaii. Obama was planning to officially announce California Rep. Hilda Solis as labor secretary, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk for U.S. trade representative, and Republican Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois as transportation secretary at a news conference Friday afternoon. He also was planning to disclose his selection to head the Small Business Administration. ...

“Obama has yet to name his picks for senior intelligence positions; those announcements aren't expected until Obama returns from his holiday break. Several Democratic officials with knowledge of the deliberations said Friday that Dennis Blair, a retired admiral and the former head of U.S. Pacific Command, is likely - if not certain — to become director of national intelligence.”

EXCLUSIVE — Scott F. Conroy of CBS News, one of our favorite new voices from this cycle, reports: “Shushannah Walshe (who you'll remember as the Fox embed who covered Romney and Palin with me) and I are excited to report that we've been offered a book deal with PublicAffairs, which we accepted [yesterday]. The working title is ‘Sarah From Alaska.’ While we're obviously going to use our experiences on the trail to report a lot of new information on how the Palin campaign was run, the book is also going to be forward-looking. There's a long list of unsuccessful VP nominees who've faded into obscurity, but what we think is so interesting about Palin is that even in defeat, she was able to win the hearts of the GOP base, and love her or hate her, she'll be back on the national scene.”

PUNDIT PREP: Team Obama has been surprised by the ferocity of the Rick Warren backlash, which will eventually pass. There’s a meme on the left (OK — holiday-party chatter) that the transition intentionally picked this fight with liberal supporters. Not true, according to people who would have been involved in such a decision. Gay groups view Pastor Rick’s stance on Prop. 8 as bigoted, a newish piece of the Rick Warren puzzle that in retrospect would have been given more weight in the stew, even if it would not have changed the decision.

TIVO – Tonight’s installment of White House week on C-SPAN, at 9 ET: “The Making of the Documentary: Following an encore presentation of ‘The White House: Inside America’s Most Famous Home,’ about the unprecedented access to the White House that led to this feature documentary. Follow the C-SPAN crew as they film throughout America’s most famous home. Program segments: 9:00p The White House: Inside America’s Most Famous Home 11:00p Making of the Series.”

TRANSITION SPEED READ:

— Politico’s Ben Smith: “President-elect Barack Obama is deeply, personally involved in filling the jobs in throughout his administration … Obama, I'm told, has an 11:00 p.m. nightly call to look at slates of personnel, casting his attention as deep as the assistant secretary level — that is, well into senior agency staff, suggesting a strong White House hand at the agencies, which isn't unexpected. The goal: Filling 325 jobs by inauguration. Of particular interest to some of Obama's prominent supporters: The first call about ambassadorial posts [was last night], though none will be named until after Jan. 20.”

— Chicago Tribune, teased on p.1, runs on p. 6: “Evangelicals fear new president They believe porn, same-sex marriage would run rampant,” by Manya A. Brachear: “[C]onservative evangelicals, who had a great deal of access to the Bush administration and influenced its policies on abortion and other issues, worry that Obama’s commitment to listen to the concerns of evangelicals comes with caveats on issues such as same-sex marriage and hiring gays and lesbians. … Others fear the possibility that federal broadcast regulations could be drawn up to silence Christian broadcasters on issues involving homosexuality on the basis that such talk could be considered hate speech. And they fear that elementary school teachers and homeschoolers will be forced to teach about same-sex relationships. … More moderate evangelicals say conservatives’ concerns are premature and unwarranted. … Even Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and a stalwart social and fiscal conservative, tends to agree that some criticism is premature. ‘That’s the intriguing thing about President-elect Obama,’ Land said. ‘He is in many ways an unknown quantity.’”

THE CLINTONS — The N.Y. Post cover is “BUBBA OF ARABIA: Millions from desert donors,” with President Clinton in a sheik’s robe and headdress.

Financial Times p. 1: “Taiwan and Middle East among main Clinton Foundation donors.”

L.A. Times A1, “Clinton's donor list spans the globe: The former president's charitable foundation has received as much as $131 million from foreign governments. The names are released to clear the way for his wife to become secretary of State,” by Dan Morain and Andrew Zajac: Hoping to allay conflict-of-interest concerns as his wife prepares to become secretary of State, President Clinton released a donor list Thursday that shows he has raised as much as $131 million from foreign governments — including Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Norway — for the William J. Clinton Foundation. More than 200,000 patrons that have given nearly $500 million since the foundation's inception in 1997 were identified by name only. … Many of the top donors have been major campaign supporters of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton. They include Los Angeles entertainment mogul Haim Saban, a strong backer of Israel; producer Stephen Bing; and Chicago billionaire Fred Eychaner. The foundation also took in millions from foreign nationals, domestic and foreign corporations, and government entities that by law could not give to the Clintons' political campaigns. The Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office, Oman, Brunei, Qatar and Kuwait are among the high rollers that have given $1 million to $5 million. … The list includes several businesses and individuals either from India or with strong ties to the country.”

43 ADIOS — Slate, “Magical History Tour: George W. Bush's last-ditch attempt to burnish his legacy,” by Christopher Beam: “As his second term wanes, … Bush is getting in touch with his inner president. … If journalism is the first rough draft of history, Bush is marking it up with a big red pen. The tour is going well so far, give or take a shoe. … Why wait for the memoir? It's all here. By now, the broad strokes of the Bush legacy refurbishment plan are clear. It rests on three planks: 1) Bush's presidency never deviated from its core principle of promoting freedom. 2) Mistakes were made, but only in unwavering service to this principle. 3) Bush succeeded in making the United States safer. For Bush, the last point is the most important. A talking point he raises often is the absence of domestic terrorist attacks since 9/11. … You can see why Bush is focusing his legacy-polishing on Iraq and security. In those cases, the countervailing evidence is harder to dredge up. Unlike, say, the economy. … Bush is also finally admitting some mistakes — something he had trouble doing a few years back. They're relatively minor. … The real irony of Bush's rehabilitation project, though, is that he's taken it up even as he insists that only history can judge him. …[T]his insistence on waiting for the verdict of history has one practical — and, to Bush, appealing — effect: It allows decision-makers to deflect legitimate criticism. If you believe a president's decisions are best judged by long-term outcomes, then by all means let history handle his legacy. But if you think presidents should be judged by their ability to weigh available evidence, ask the right questions, and make intelligent choices based on what they know, then — well, there's no time for judging like the present.”

IN THE STATES — CALIFORNIA — L.A. Times A1, “Schwarzenegger says he won't back Democratic budget plan: The governor says the $18-billion plan calling for higher taxes and spending cuts doesn't go as far as he'd like to stimulate the economy. The state may run out of money in early February.”

MEDIA WATCH — NBC release — “CHUCK TODD NAMED NBC NEWS CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT — SAVANNAH GUTHRIE PARTNERS AS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT … Todd will retain his title as NBC News Political Director in addition to his new duties on the White House beat. As part of this announcement, he is also being named Contributing Editor to ‘Meet the Press,’ where he will make frequent appearances to offer reporting and political analysis. Todd joined NBC News as Political Director in March 2007. In addition to his on-air analysis, Todd has been responsible for all aspects of the network's political coverage, including maintaining contact with the campaigns and serving as the point person for political news and information. He is also the editor of ‘First Read,’ NBC's must-read guide to political news and trends in and around Washington, D.C., and writes weekly analysis columns for MSNBC.com. Before joining NBC News, Todd was the Editor-in-Chief of National Journal's ‘The Hotline,’ Washington's premier daily briefing on American Politics. In his 15 years working at ‘The Hotline’ or one of its affiliates, Todd became one of Washington's foremost experts on political campaigns of all levels. He served as Editor-in-Chief for six years. He also serves as a contributing editor to ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ where he pens political essays, and he teaches a graduate-level political communications course at the Johns Hopkins University. In December 2005, Todd was featured as one of Washingtonian's 'Best Of'’ journalists.

“Savannah Guthrie joined NBC News in September 2007, and has been a key member of NBC News' political reporting team. She has served as White House correspondent for weekend programming for more than a year, and contributed to all NBC News properties, including ‘NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams,’ ‘Today’ and MSNBC. Prior to joining NBC News, Guthrie was the legal affairs correspondent based in Washington, D.C. for Court TV … Guthrie joined ‘Court TV’ from the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld where she practiced law, with an emphasis in white-collar litigation, from 2002-2003. From 2000-2002, Guthrie was a freelance reporter at WRC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C. Guthrie was also an anchor and reporter for KVOA-TV, the NBC affiliate in Tucson, Arizona from 1995-1999, specializing in legal affairs and politics. From 1993-1995, Guthrie was an anchor and reporter for KMIZ-TV, the ABC affiliate in Columbia, Missouri where she anchored and produced weekend newscasts. In 2002, Guthrie received her Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center, where she graduated magna cum laude. … She graduated cum laude from the University of Arizona with Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism in 1993.”

SPORTS BLINK — Since the usually thorough AP inexplicably omitted the AFC East from the playoff scenarios we published yesterday, ARI FLEISCHER picked up the ball: “The mighty Dolphins can win the division if they beat the lowly Chiefs this weekend, and then beat the Jets in New York for the final regular season game. From 1-15 last year to the possibility of a playoff birth this year (for the first time since President Bush choked on a pretzel watching them in 2001) — and their destiny is under their control. Now that’s news.”

DESSERT — After a grim year, the ECONOMIST gives readers a break in its “Special Christmas Double Issue” with a WHY WE LOVE MUSIC cover: “Human evolution: Why music: Biologists are addressing one of humanity’s strangest attributes, its all-singing, all-dancing culture”: A new hypothesis “is that music is a cross between an accident and an invention. It is an accident because it is the consequence of abilities that evolved for other purposes. And it is an invention because, having thus come into existence, people have bent it to their will and made something they like from it. … Universality, costliness and genetic control all suggest that music has a clear function in survival or reproduction … One reason for believing this is that musical productivity — at least among the recording artists who have exploited the phonograph and its successors over the past hundred years or so — seems to match the course of an individual’s reproductive life. In particular, [Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary biologist who works at the University of New Mexico] studied jazz musicians. He found that their output rises rapidly after puberty, reaches its peak during young-adulthood, and then declines with age and the demands of parenthood. …

“[M]usic fulfils the main criterion of a sexually selected feature: it is an honest signal of underlying fitness. Just as unfit peacocks cannot grow splendid tails, so unfit people cannot sing well, dance well (for singing and dancing go together, as it were, like a horse and carriage) or play music well. All of these activities require physical fitness and dexterity. Composing music requires creativity and mental agility. Put all of these things together and you have a desirable mate. … [M]any natural sounds evoke emotion for perfectly good reasons (fear at the howl of a wolf, pleasure at the sound of gently running water, irritation and mother-love at the crying of a child). Sexually selected features commonly rely on such pre-existing perceptual biases. It is probably no coincidence, for instance, that peacocks’ tails have eyespots; animal brains are good at recognizing eyes because eyes are found only on other animals. It is pure speculation, but music may be built on emotions originally evolved to respond to important natural sounds, but which have blossomed a hundred-fold.”

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About The Author

Mike Allen is the chief White House correspondent for POLITICO. He comes to us from Time magazine where he was their White House correspondent. Prior to that, Allen spent six years at The Washington Post, where he covered President Bush's first term, Capitol Hill, campaign finance, and the Bush, Gore and Bradley campaigns of 2000. Before turning to national politics, he covered schools and local governments in rural counties outside Fredericksburg, Va., for The Free Lance-Star, then wrote about Doug Wilder, Oliver North, Chuck Robb and the Bobbitts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he nurtured police sources on overnight ride-alongs through housing projects. Allen also covered Mayor Giuliani, the Connecticut statehouse and the wacky rich of Greenwich for The New York Times. Before moving to The Times, he did stints in the Richmond and Alexandria bureaus of The Washington Post. Allen grew up in Orange County, Calif., and has a B.A. from Washington and Lee University, where he majored in politics and journalism.